A Brief Note On Gender Roles Of Communication

The unconscious is a group of thoughts, feelings, urges or memories that are suppressed beneath the conscious. We may think or feel something and not fully understand why that occurs, this can be considered the unconscious. These thoughts can enter the conscious by being distorted or disguised this is usually because they are kept out to stop fear anxiety. An example of this would be a slip of the tongue, where you say something because you were unconsciously thinking it.

In the article “Male and Female Communication: Differences Worth Nothing”, Laurie M. Stewart explains that main ideas about the differences between men and women communication that were published by three different Doctors. The differences exist in men and women communication, although not any of the theories were widely accepted. Stewart introduces that the belief of men and women are differentiated in communication due to different focus and driving force was written by Deborah Tannen in You Just Don’t Understand. Next she lists the points that John Gray wrote in Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus about general communication styles varied between men and women. Then Stewart introduces that the theory Lillian Glass wrote about gender

The personal unconscious – according to Carl Jung, the component of the mind contains thoughts and feelings that are currently not yet part of any conscious awareness, e.g. An individual that doesn’t like a certain type of room but not sure why, might be where something traumatic took place.

The conscious holds our thoughts that are present right now, the conscious mind consists of everything inside of our awareness. The preconscious is where we hold our thoughts and memories that are currently not in awareness, but can be easily retrieved. The preconscious holds our fears, emotions, and memories. The unconscious thoughts are things a person cannot voluntarily bring to awareness. We cannot access our unconscious without professional help, the unconscious initiates extreme anxiety and can’t be revealed to the conscious mind. We can’t know or see what’s in our unconscious, but we can work with it. In 1923 Freud came out with a new theory describing our personality, most people know of this theory as "Freud 's personality

     During psychoanalysis, the patient engages in free association, by saying whatever comes to mind. They must speak without concern for whether the ideas are painful, embarrassing, or illogical. Dream analysis is also considered a good way to tap the unconsciousness. Freud felt that forbidden desires and unconscious feelings are more freely expressed in dreams. Then there is analysis of resistance where the analyst becomes aware of resistances, or blockages in the flow of ideas, and he or she brings them to the patient’s awareness so they can be dealt with realistically. Finally, there is analysis of transference, which the patient may act as if the analyst is the rejecting father, former lover, or whoever the patient is feeling anger

According to Boeree, (2007), the unconscious mind would be made referenced to all the things that are not easily available to awareness and other things such as our drives or instincts. Additionally the unconscious mind includes the things that are put there that we block out voluntarily or involuntarily as in any case resulting from a traumatic event or episode.

Every day, at home or at workplaces, people engage in conversations involving the opposite gender. How does gender play a critical role in a conversation? Reasonings behind the existence of “genderlect” are quite complex. Bill Cosby once said “Men and women belong to different species and communication between them is a science still in it infancy (Eisenberg).” Men and women are born with the same brains. However, the way they function differently when having conversations. When men and women communicate, men mostly use the left side of their brains while women are capable of using both sides explaining the excellent in their multi-tasking skills. Surprisingly, biological differences are not responsible for the genderlect, but the social norms and cultural backgrounds. These factors further differentiate conversations between men and women. Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown University has written extensively on genderlect in her national best selling book, “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation.” In her book (Tannen, 1990), she explores in depth about different conversational styles of men and women with relatable examples. She also suggests some steps that could be taken to relieve people’s frustrations towards each other’s differences. Tannen’s focus is mainly on the sociolinguistic side of linguistics and the verbal-communication.

This paper attempts to review for the reader a selection of literature that study and analyze the differences that exist between men and women and the manner in which they communicate. Not only do these pieces of literature fall into different categories and specialties, they also deliver varied opinions and results as to what causes the differences discussed. By becoming familiar with the many aspects of gender communication differences, the responsible worker or manager can synthesize those findings into a methodology that enhances work place communication.

To begin, let’s classify what is meant by roles. By definition, a role is a set of behaviors expected of someone in a particular position. In theater, there are numerous roles with different individuals portraying the set character. Additionally, in a hospital, there are human beings acting out roles such as doctors and nurses. Characters are divided further into detail between males and females. Gender roles are norms for how women and men are supposed to act. Wait. What is a norm? A norm is classified as rules or expectations that guide people’s behavior in a culture – or in their biological sex type. Conclusively, the United States has pictured certain identities for men and women about how they should act/function is the world. Additionally, each portrayal is then distinguished by specific categories (i.e. masculinity), time, and culture. The interpersonal communication concept of gender roles is studied by various theorists previously and currently to distinguish a particular theoretical understanding of the phenomenon.

According to Freud, the larger part of the mind exists below the surface of awareness.The unconscious stores all experiences, memories, and repressed material.Needs and motivations that are inaccessible or out of our awareness, are also outside the sphere of conscious control.Most psychological functioning exists in the out-of-awareness realm.The aim of psychoanalytic therapy is to make unconscious motives conscious.

When analysing the Psychodynamic perspective we can argue that it emphasises on the individual’s unconscious psychological processes in determining their day to day thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Freud believed the mind was mostly hidden and based his theory on three assumptions; personality is down to human experience, human functioning and the foundation of personality. Human experience explores the idea that our mind takes place on three levels of consciousness; the conscious, the preconscious and the unconscious. The conscious refers to the only level of mental life available to us which we are aware of such as, our memory, feelings and sensations. The preconscious signifies the experiences that are not currently conscious but can become so, for

Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind claimed that people experience hysteria or other reactions in response to repressed experiences. “The unconscious contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond our awareness but that nevertheless motivate most of our words, feelings, and actions (Feist & Feist, 2008).” Freud and his theory are responsible for the birth of what is known today as psychoanalysis and Freud is considered the founding father of psychoanalysis.

What would the average person say if asked them. “What are the communication differences between men and women?” Would it be something like women talk about shoes, and men talk about sports? Or maybe something along the lines of women talk all-the-time and men hardly speak at all. What if I said that assumption is correct. Well, not entirely of course. As it turns out, men and women have some fundamental communicative differences. This is also very much a generalization, and I would not think includes persons who identify as different genders.

Freud believed peoples mental functions stem from the unconscious mind. These mental functions are repressed experiences will denote the submerged part of the iceberg. They are also described as mental inner conflict

Differences in gender communication deal with technology, negotiations, the workplace and persuasion. Researchers believes that the main difference in gender communication is due to the fact the men and women view the purpose of interactions in a different way. Women tend to see conversations as connections while men use them as competition and power gaining tactics (Merchant, 2012). Personally I can reflect on experiences when this objective seems to be true. During dating, women tend to be seen as more emotional and strive for relationship while in some